Renee Burnham, with her son Miles, objects to the elimination of grades 7 and 8 at MLK Magnet. / George Walker IV / File / The Tennessean

After hearing sharp and widespread criticisms about a plan to eliminate two grades from a high-achieving but crowded Nashville high school, district officials reversed course with a new plan Monday.

Instead of removing the seventh and eighth grades from Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet High School, the latest proposal from Metro Schools Superintendent Jesse Register would instead embark on a multimillion-dollar expansion.

Concerned parents and teachers filled three public hearings in September — including one in which no one spoke in favor of Register’s first plan. The superintendent responded with his latest proposal during a Monday meeting of the Metro Council education committee.

Pending school board approval and Metro Council funding, 10 new classrooms would be added to MLK Magnet, raising capacity from 1,200 to 1,500 students, said Metro Nashville Public Schools spokeswoman Meredith Libbey. The construction would build upon what is currently the school’s soccer field.

“There was tremendous support for the 7-through-12 model, and educationally it’s a sound model and it’s a successful school, one of the top-ranked in the nation,” she said. “We had the meetings to listen to people, and this was something that came across.”

Libbey cautioned that such an expansion could take a year to plan and a year to build.

“The school, right now, it is full,” she said. “We would make due in the interim.”

School officials have said it has become harder for students in a designated pipeline to MLK Magnet to gain entry. Students from feeders Head and Rose Park middle magnet schools can attend MLK if they meet certain academic benchmarks.

The district began looking for ways to accommodate students from inside and outside those pathways, weighing whether to drop the middle school grades to make room for high school students or to close the school to those not already on a path to attend.

Metro Councilman Jerry Maynard, who attended Monday’s meeting, applauded Register’s proposal for heeding the desires of parents who spoke out and for making a move to preserve diversity at the school.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Maynard said. “It’s not simple. It’s a lot of moving parts. But I think it can be done.”

While supportive of the proposal, Maynard said he still has questions about funding — possibly $4 million, according to an early estimate.

“If you add more money to MLK, will you take money away from other schools that also need capital improvements?” Maynard questioned.

The school board is due to take up the proposal Oct. 22. Funding would need to be requested through the typical budget process for capital projects, Libbey said.